Monsters
by RiordanGirl
Summary: Hazel Levesque is a maiden girl in the time of the Civil War. Her brother Nico is a soldier. But when others find out the sibling's darkest secret - their parentage - rumors of dark magic begin to spread. It now falls upon Hazel to save her brother and herself from the consequences of what the others think they are; witches. Rated T for blood. No Nico or Hazel pairings.
1. Brother Soldier

**Hazel Levesque was a simple maiden girl in the time of the Civil War. Her brother Nico was a soldier. But when others find out the sibling's darkest secret - their parentage - rumors of dark magic and witchcraft begin to spread. It now falls upon Hazel to save her brother and herself from the consequences of what they think they are. But can she?**

* * *

Chapter One

HAZEL

.:|:.

_Boom._

Hazel covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, but it was no good. If anything, the muffled sounds of the cannons made it even harder to concentrate.

_Boom. Boom. Boom._

Even down in the bomb shelter, Hazel still felt she was in as much danger as if she were on the battlefield. But that was probably because a part of her actually _was_ on the battlefield. Her brother. The only family she had left. He was only thirteen, but apparently that age was due for soldiers.

_Boom. Boom. Boom._

Hazel had half a mind to go out there. She wanted to throw open the door and look for him. She couldn't stand the thought that she might be down here safe while her brother was dying up on the surface, failing to fight trying to save his life and Hazel's. But no, she couldn't do that. Annabeth would get to her before she even stood.

Annabeth. One of the only people who would comfort her about Nico when he was out there in the battle. Annabeth was a tall blonde seventeen-year-old girl who worked at an inn before she had met her soul mate, Percy Jackson; also a soldier along with Nico. Hazel always referred to Annabeth as an older sister, for she was everything a thirteen-year-old girl could ever want in one. She held Hazel when she cried, provided meals for her and Nico every day, and taught them to read and write. Annabeth Chase could never replace Bianca, or either of Hazel or Nico's mothers, but she came very close, and that was all they needed.

"Leo..."

_Someone's crying,_ Hazel thought. She turned her butterscotch gaze away from the exit of the bomb shelter to the source of the wailing.

It was Calypso; that thin, sandy haired teenaged girl around Annabeth's age that worked at that machine shop Hazel could never afford to purchase from. _Leo_. Yes, she worked there with him; Leo Valdez, the son of Hephaestus. They were an odd couple, Hazel admitted. Odd. But that hadn't stopped Leo from proposing to her on her birthday last week. Hazel had caught from the rumor going around she'd said yes.

_Leo must be out there with Percy and Nico._ Hazel sympathized.

Her thoughts were confirmed when Calypso wailed again. She repeated the same line over and over, voice slurred with tears. "_Leo_. _Leo_. _Leo_."

"Shush, dear," Calypso's friend Piper tried to sooth her, raising her voice to be heard over the next string of _booms_. "L-Leo will be okay. Just wait. We'll go up there after the war's over and he'll be standing there at the top of the hill, where you can run to him."

Piper McLean was a tan girl with a figure that made any girl envious and choppy, chocolaty brown hair braided with eagle feathers and a few beads. Hazel suspected this was a traditional look in her family with the Indian heritage she descended from, but, her mother being Aphrodite and all, she looked darn beautiful in it just the same.

Piper also had one of the gifts of the Aphrodite children; charmspeak, which could influence people to do what you wanted them to whenever you wanted them to. Hazel could tell Piper had put charmspeak into her last phrase while trying to reassure Calypso, but Calypso didn't seem to be acknowledging anything Piper said, charmspeak or no. She continued to bawl.

_Boom. Boom. Boom._

Annabeth, from behind, pulled Hazel into an embrace. Hazel clutched Annabeth's arms while listening to Calypso's desperate wailing and tried to hold back her own tears. Annabeth stared blankly at the wall, undoubtedly thinking of Percy. This made Hazel's throat close ever tighter. Would any of them ever see their loved ones again?

_Boom._

Hazel waited, expecting another cannon roar, but it was suddenly quiet. Everyone else seemed to notice it, too. Piper stopped talking. Annabeth sat rigidly still. All the women and children in the bomb shelter held their breath. Even Calypso's racking sobs subsided into an intent form of listening.

Finally, a fifteen year old girl in the corner who went by Silena Beauregard piped up. "Is it over? Is the war over?"

Nobody answered her. All was dead silent.

Hazel shuddered and dwelled on the word a moment. _Dead_.

Hazel suddenly couldn't stand it. Her brother. She needed to see him. She had to see Nico. She had to see if he was alive.

Immediately she leaped out of Annabeth's arms and stumbled towards the shelter's exit. Annabeth jumped up instantly. "Hazel!"

Hazel ignored her and fumbled with the knob. Annabeth rushed over and grabbed her shoulder, but the intent was done. The door slowly creaked open.

Hazel shoved the door aside.

The battlefield Hazel saw was gruesome. Tears sprung into Hazel's eyes, caused by both the horrible scene in front of her and the strong smell and haze of gunpowder in the air, still hanging after hours and hours of warring. The worst were the soldiers, though. Even the one's still alive, Hazel would never elaborate with how they looked and how they pleaded. Their wounds. Their hoarse voices. Then Hazel felt faint. _Nico..._

She ripped the sleeve of her dress tearing away from Annabeth's firm grasp. Annabeth didn't go after her, though. She was still staring at the scene, seemingly scarred, lower lip trembling.

Hazel didn't stay around to observe any more than that. Her mind swam. _Nico. I have to find Nico._

She didn't know how much gore-covered land she'd covered, or how much time had passed. Everything was a blur. _Nico. Nico. Nico._

He couldn't have left her. He couldn't have! He was her only family. She owed him so much for just the fact he was her brother.

Her soul full of determination, Hazel began to search.

.:|:.

The sun was going down, and Hazel was still searching; but on the verge of giving up. She'd screamed his name until she croaked almost as terribly as the dehydrated soldiers around her. She looked and looked until her eyesight became blurry. Her nose was clogged by all the smoke and her ears kept popping from the side affects of the gunpowder clouds wafting through the air.

She wanted to give up. But even when her mind kept whispering: _you'll never find him, _her heart kept thumping louder and louder as if to say, _look just_ _one more time._

It was nearly dusk when she found him.

Her brother was on his side facing away from her, laying unmoving near a war-devastated tree. He was recognizable, thankfully, but he seemed badly injured and he wasn't moving. At all.

"Nico!" She shrieked, scrambling to his side. Hazel didn't want to go into detail, but even without elaborating, it was bad. Where she had grabbed his shoulder, her hand was soaked with blood. She didn't pull her hand away, though. She'd need to stop the blood flowing from the wound or he'd bleed to death.

She examined him anxiously. A long gash traced his forearm, deep enough to leave a permanent scar, but not so to lose the use of his hand. He had multiple bruises and several scratches, along with the cut lining his forehead and a bloody nose, but otherwise, he seemed alright. But Hazel didn't get her hopes up. He still hadn't come to consciousness.

"Nico!" She repeated shrilly. "Please wake up! Please! Nico, I can't lose you. Not now!"

She threw her arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder. "Wake up! Wake up!"

Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe Hazel's begging had caused their father to take pity on them; but it was then that Nico woke up.

His eyes fluttered. "H-Hazel?"

She didn't answer right away. She was too relieved. She kept hugging him close, not wanting to let go in fear he'd slip away. "You're gonna be fine. Alright? You're not going anywhere. You're staying right here!" She ordered firmly.

"Yes, ma'am," He smiled weakly.

Hazel wanted to help him up. She wanted it to be like the times he'd gotten into fights with the older kids in their neighborhood; how he'd picked himself up, brushed himself off, and gave a smug look to the bullies when he found he could still walk. Hazel - as crazy as it sounded - missed those days dearly. Of course, back in those days, she'd always been helping Annabeth with chores or making treats while Nico went out looking for trouble. It wasn't as if Hazel had ever experienced a real fight before.

"Can-Can you walk?" She pulled away, wiping her tear-stained face and trying to seem strong for him.

Nico's grim expression made her pale with dizziness. "What? _What_?!"

"Can't move." He whispered. "Can't feel my legs.

* * *

**Tell me what you think, guys! My first fanfic! Hopes it's okay. Read and Review please!**

**~RiordanGirl**


	2. The Shivering Girl

**Hazel had been waiting in the dark of a bomb shelter with the other women and children for hours on end while the Civil War raged on. When the war had finally paused, Hazel had abandoned the shelter in search for her brother, Nico. The only problem is, though, that Nico is not only badly injured, he may have lost the use of his legs.**

_**Now read on...**_

* * *

Chapter Two

HAZEL

.:|:.

Hazel threw Nico's blood soaked arm over her shoulder. "I'll get you back to Annabeth. She'll fix you up."

"Hazel..."

"Don't talk!" Hazel snapped, stray tears making wet streaks through the dust on her face. "Trying to talk will only increase the blood flow on you shoulder and your arm. I don't want you bleeding to death!"

Nico looked as though he wanted to object, but he just sighed and nodded, exhausted. Hazel searched his face worriedly; he seemed as if he couldn't hang on to consciousness any longer. She couldn't very well carry him back if he'd gone limp. She needed help.

"Oh, Nico," She bit her lip to avoid the crack in her voice. "What'll we do?"

Her brother blinked at her, wincing as her hair brushed against the raw gash on his arm. He was looking at her expectantly, and Hazel could imagine his old cockiness coming back just then; Y_our call, ma'am. You're in charge for the time being._

Hazel stared into his black eyes. She didn't want to leave him, even for a moment. She was too afraid he might die while she was away. Nico was strong, and it must've taken real commitment for someone his age to survive something like this, but not even Nico could evade death. Not even if his father was...

_Stop it!_ Hazel scolded herself, glancing around warily. _If anyone found out, you'd be in big, big trouble._

She dropped her gaze back to Nico. He'd gone limp. He'd probably passed out from the pain. Hazel couldn't blame him.

She carefully unhooked his arm from over her shoulders. She grasped his pale, bloody hand in hers and kissed his forehead. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back. Promise."

With this, Hazel stood up, turned around and sprinted off towards the bomb shelter, having no idea that behind her, a droplet of water fell from the sky and landed with a _splat_ on a stone.

.:|:.

Hazel reached the bomb shelter in less time than she expected. Outside the bomb shelter, women and men that were still able to walk were picking up soldiers on stretchers and rushing them back into the shelter for the doctors to take care of. She found Annabeth helping Piper carry one of the alive ones - was that Jason? Percy? - back into the bomb shelter. Hazel hoped her friends had found whom they were looking for. Poor Calypso would have many more tears if she hadn't found Leo yet.

"Annabeth!" Hazel cried. "Annabeth!"

Annabeth turned in surprise, almost dropping the soldier she carried. "Oh, Hazel! We were so worried! Did you find him?"

"I found him." Hazel's lower lip trembled. "But I can't bring him back by myself. He won't wake back up and I - I think his legs are paralyzed."

Annabeth paled. "Oh, Hazel, I'm so sorry. I'll help you bring him back... but I need to take this soldier to the bomb shelter... I'll be right back."

Hazel watched Annabeth go, making slow progress with the solider in tow, mumbling incoherently to herself and wiping at her eyes. Hazel didn't know why she was suddenly so distraught. Nico _would_ wake back up again.

Wouldn't he?

Hazel had waited five entire minutes before the sudden wetness landed on her head. She looked up in surprise. Was that... rain? _Rain! No!_ Hazel turned to the direction she'd come. _Nico! He'd die in this weather!_ Annabeth had to come back out soon. Had to.

Why was she was taking so long...?

Hazel dashed up to the bomb shelter door and threw it open. The concrete stairs tapped loudly beneath her slippers as she ran. Finally, she burst into the underground room. "Annabeth!" She cried. "Why...?"

She trailed off. A young girl was lying on the floor, coughing, eyes glazed over. Everyone in the shelter leaned away from her, staring in shock, though Hazel didn't know why they weren't helping her. Hazel knew this girl from her hometown. It was Bobbi, a brunet only a year younger than Hazel.

Bobbi was shuddering nonstop, looking as though she was having a seizure. Above her knelt a tall, scrawny white-blonde boy, looking as though he himself was n the verge of a panic attack. Hazel recognized him as Octavian, son of Apollo.

_She must be one of his sisters,_ Hazel thought sadly._ Poor Octavian..._

Then Hazel took a closer look at Bobbi's actions. She was clutching her right shoulder and arm with white knuckles, eyes wide with pain. "Hurts... rain. Please, help... anyone! Help me! Help me!"

"What's wrong with her?!" Octavian cried, whirling around wildly. "She's not wounded; why is she acting this way?!"

Hazel stared at the girl shivering on the floor, horrorstruck. Hazel's mind burned with the terrorized expression in Bobbi's eyes; red tinged with pure pain. She almost couldn't stand it. She had to look away. But she couldn't... She _couldn't_...

Annabeth materialized next to her, a hand on Hazel's shoulder. "I'm sorry," She murmured sadly. "I shouldn't have stayed."

Hazel tore her eyes away from Bobbi and looked up at Annabeth's sorrowful face. "Nico." Hazel whispered. "In the rain. Hurt."

Annabeth nodded and turned toward the stairs again. Hazel cried to herself, following her._ I hope I'm not too late._

.:|:.

NICO

.:|:.

Nico di Angelo wished he was dead.

He couldn't focus properly on anything around him except the sky. It was gray and cloudy... and it hurt him. His shoulder wound was being pelted with rain and it stung. But Nico didn't cry out. Hazel told him not to talk. He wouldn't.

Instead he gritted his teeth and tried to forget or focus on something else, but that was nearly impossible. The rain, merciless, kept coming down heavier and heavier. It was cold and felt like knives on his raw skin. He wished Hazel was still here. She'd been there one second, then was suddenly gone. Nico suspected in the back of his mind that he must've passed out, and she'd left, but otherwise he was stricken with panic.

Wild thoughts jabbed at his brain; _what if she left me? What if I'm all alone? Why am I still alive? Why won't I just die already?_

He wanted to cry out. He wanted to. Hazel told him not to speak. He wouldn't. He didn't.

Instead he just shut his eyes against the agony of his shoulder and began to think. He wanted to say it. Just to see if anyone would come;

_Hurts... rain... Please, help... anyone! Help me! Help me!_

But he wouldn't. He couldn't. It hurt to move. He couldn't feel his legs.

_Why?_ He shouted in his mind, hoping his father could hear. _Why are you doing this to me?_

And then... indistinct voices. Hazel? Couldn't be. She didn't have two voices... He caught a fuzzy picture of a tall blonde and a smaller one who _must_ be Hazel.

_She came back,_ he thought.

Then his vision went black.

.:|:.

**Hope it's okay. I hope that gave you at least a little idea of what's going on. Read and review!**

**~RiordanGirl**


	3. Witchcraft?

**Hazel, after waiting through an entire session of the Civil War in a bomb shelter, finally escaped the place to find her brother, Nico. But when she found him, he was badly injured and thought to have lost the use of his legs. It began to rain as Hazel left for help.**

**Hazel had run back to the shelter to fetch Annabeth, her trusted friend, to help her bring him back. But inside the bomb shelter Hazel had made a frightening discovery; a girl who had almost seemed to be... cursed, to believe she was wounded in the rain.**

**Hazel had a feeling it wasn't coincidental.**

_**Now read on...**_

* * *

Chapter Three

NICO

.:|:.

Everyone has bad days once in a while, but Nico's luck was just ridiculous.

The last time he'd had at least a tiny crumb of good fortune had been five days ago when Hazel had kissed him on the forehead just before he'd gone into battle. Even that wasn't exactly cheerful.

And when Nico had finally roused in the bomb shelter, he'd been told by Hazel it had been two days since he last passed out. Nico was incredulous at first, but it didn't surprise Hazel.

"I expected you to faint," She'd explained when he'd given her a blank look. "You had a bullet wound in your shoulder."

"Lovely." He muttered. "I love bullets in my shoulder."

Hazel had a ghost of a smile on her face by his newfound cockiness, but it almost immediately crumbled back to sadness. "The doctors still haven't figured out what's wrong with your legs yet..."

"I don't care." Nico responded, hand unconsciously rubbing his bandaged shoulder. "I'm alive, aren't I?"

Hazel nodded. For a moment, it was quiet. Then; "I tried to get Calypso over here more often, but she seems to be preoccupied with another patient."

Nico's gaze wandered to where Hazel gestured. Calypso was sitting next to Leo Valdez on the floor against the wall, her head on his shoulder and on his chin on her head. They both seemed to be asleep.

"I'm glad she found him," Hazel said. "But I wish she'd pay more attention to the others. Leo came down perfectly fine, unlike many of the other soldiers."

Perfectly fine. Nico gave Leo an irritated look. Yes, of course he was. He was hiding in a nice deep trench the whole time. Nico wasn't as good with the cannons as Leo, so, of course, when Nico volunteered they didn't choose him. They chose Leo. And everyone in the trenches always turned out just fine.

The trenches. The trenches that the Cyclopes dug. For the demigods.

_The battle I fought... it wasn't even mine, _Nico remembered. It was the _monsters'_ battle. Big, freaky, one eyed things that thought the sound of demigod slaves sounded fun. Of course, _some_ monsters rebelled against it. These monsters where the good ones who protested that the demigods were their friends. So it was monster against monster with a bunch of demigods stuck in between, forced to choose which side. They chose the obvious.

"Hey, Nico," Hazel began again, wringing her hands and biting her lip, obviously troubled greatly. "Before we brought you in, there was this girl... do you remember Bobbi?"

"Octavian's little sister?" Nico recalled. "Yeah. What about her?"

"People think she was cursed." Hazel said gravely. "By a witch."

Nico felt the blood rush out of his face. "What do you mean?"

"Listen. Two days ago, when I found you, you had your shoulder wound and it was raining. Bobbi was over here, and she was shrieking that her shoulder hurt because of the rain... she wasn't even outside, Nico."

"What are you getting at?"

"She seriously thought she was outside in the rain with a hole in her shoulder!" Hazel hissed. "And... and... you had a shoulder wound at the time."

"You think she felt what I felt?" Nico felt a jolt of fear.

"Shh." Hazel warned, glancing over her shoulder warily. "If anyone else found out that it's connected - "

"I know. But what if it's _not_ connected?" Nico tried to reason. "It could be a coincidence. She could've just hit her shoulder at some point and overreacted."

"People won't believe that." She dropped her voice even further. "If they found out that _and_ who our father is..."

"They won't."

"But if they did, we couldn't count on alliances anymore. You know, when people settled around these areas and they believed people to be witches, terrible things happened to those people."

"That was, what, eighty years ago?" Nico reminded her. "People don't believe in witches anymore."

"With our history, that belief undoubtedly will come back again."

Nico sighed and squeezed her hand. "Try not to think about it. It was a coincidence. That's all."

Hazel dropped her gaze. "I hope you're right."

"Me, too."

**...**

**Sorry it was so short. Is it okay? I hope it's not terrible. First fanfic besides my other one-shot. Tell me if you like or don't like, please. **

**~RiordanGirl**


	4. A Dangerous Accusation

**Hazel, after waiting through an entire session of the Civil War in a bomb shelter, finally escaped the place to find her brother, Nico. But when she found him, he was badly injured and thought to have lost the use of his legs. It began to rain as Hazel left for help.**

**Hazel had run back to the shelter to fetch Annabeth, her trusted friend, to help her bring him back. But inside the bomb shelter Hazel had made a frightening discovery; a girl who had almost seemed to be... cursed, to believe she was wounded in the rain.**

**Hazel had a feeling it wasn't coincidental. She talked to her brother about it, and they agreed it wouldn't be a the best choice to reveal their one most dangerous secret to anyone in the world. **

_**Now read on...**_

* * *

Chapter Four

NICO

.:|:.

Time passed slowly from then on.

It came and it went, sluggishly, the days repeating themselves on the same boring schedule. Nico would wake up, he'd be visited by Hazel, who encouraged him to stand up - which of course he couldn't, then she'd leave, he'd watch everyone else walking around, Hazel would come again later in the day and encourage him to eat something, which he always turned down, and then he'd just go back to sleep until the next day came around. It wasn't very fun.

But that was before Octavian caused a rampage.

It began the third day after he entered the hospital. Hazel had left to help Annabeth with some other extracurricular activity and Nico was left watching the hours tick by on the rusted gray pocket watch on the metal bedside table. Then it happened.

"It had to have been the god of evil! He cursed my sisters! He cursed my sisters for no reason... because he's evil!"

Nico turned his head to see the tall scarecrow of Octavian raging across the room. Apparently, he'd been rehearsing this speech to other people, because every word that came out of his mouth was timed.

"Hades, lord of the dead, riches and _misery_, has cursed my sisters!" Octavian howled, clawing at his own hair. "Take a look for yourself! Bobbi was like she was three days ago, and now Miley's barking like a dog! and look - Brittney is hallucinating!"

Nico glanced next to Octavian, where Brittney was covering her eyes with her palms and shivering. "Make them go away. Make them go away. Make them go away. Make them..."

"See?" Octavian yelled.

Piper McLean, who happened to be near, quickly rushed up to Octavian and replied as gently as she could; "Many people get hallucinations during wars, Octavian. I'm sure Brittney is just a bit feverish. Besides, Hades can't curse people on the surface from so far within his realm- "

"That's why he got one of his kids to do it for him!" Octavian shrieked. "Everyone know the Hades kids are witches!"

At the word 'witches', everyone previously ignoring Octavian froze along with the ones who weren't. The son of Apollo now held the whole room's attention.

"Witches don't exist." Piper tried to reason. "Hades hasn't had children for millennia."

"That's just what he wants you to think." Octavian growled, obviously trying to sound ominous.

Nico felt a cold sweat on the back of his neck. _Oh Styx, no. Hazel was right._

"We have to launch a witch hunting!" Octavian raved on, looking everyone within eye contact in the eye - including Nico. "Or the witches will hunt _you_!"

"Alright," Calypso's voice was quavering with nervousness. "Let's not scare everyone, Octavian. Come - bring Brittney over here for a checkup..."

"No!" Octavian lifted his head indignantly. "I will trust no one with my sisters! Anyone here could be a witch. Including _you_, Calypso!" Then he got up close to her face. "Or is it daughter of Hades?"

"Hey!" Leo shouted, pulling Calypso away and regarding Octavian like he was some feral animal. "Don't you dare accuse Calypso!"

Octavian curled his lip at Leo. "Now that's suspicious, Valdez. Is it _you_?"

Leo's eyes widened and he opened his mouth as if to shoot something equally full of nonsense, but he was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Annabeth and Hazel.

Annabeth, seeing everyone in a panicked state because of Octavian, set down the bucket of water she was holding, marched up to the son of Apollo, and pinched his ear - hard. Octavian yelped. "Ouch!"

Annabeth dragged him out of the room, fuming, while Hazel trailed behind them, two buckets of water in her hands. Piper took Brittney by the shoulders and led her towards the checkup table while a couple of people surrounded Calypso and Leo, trying to reassure them.

Nico, on the other hand, was not reassured. He had caught Hazel's eye as she left the infirmary. She'd been worried.

It was then Nico realized the danger of being discovered. Even if the infirmary ignored Octavian's wish for a witch hunt, who knew how many other people didn't? How many people did Octavian persuade to launch a witch hunt? Would it happen?

Of course it would. Octavian, through some people's eyes, had a point. Children of Hades were often dangerous, and some in history were indeed witches. It made sense. They had every reason to launch a witch hunt.

And the hunt was on.

**...**

**Sorry it's short. Tell me what you think, guys. Is it okay so far? Tell me if you like it or not, please.**

**~RiordanGirl**


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